Divided we fall

By Bernard Karganilla

May 05, 2016

OUR public choice, though sovereign, is limited by the quality of candidates, the immaturity as well as malnutrition among the electorate, and foreign intervention, making the Rizalian Republic an ochlocracy.

In our reflections of the Filipinos, we may discern that some patterns could have been set more than 100 years ago. According to Jose Rizal:

“Every trader sells his merchandise at the price he likes. The Chinese sells his tinapa sometimes two for a centavo, and at other times, three for two centavos. If we tolerate this practice of the Chinese dealer, why should we not tolerate that of the curate-trader of scapulars?” [Pensamientos de un Filipino, Madrid, 1883-1885]

“But if the capitalist knows how to grease and through offerings to appease the gods and render them favorable, he has already accomplished much.” [“Filipino Farmers,” La Solidaridad, Volume I, pp. 21-23, March 1889] Shades of Kidapawan?

“There is a very mistaken idea about the Filipino people. The writers who have described them slandered them, because in depicting them they have taken as models their servants, that multitude of unfortunate devils without country, education, or home, who go to the great capital cities. They (Spanish writers/journalists) have described those ridiculous characters who swarm like parasites around the offices and the sidewalks (overseas Filipino workers/job applicants). They do not know that the educated class who, seeing so much mud and poverty, shut themselves in isolation. Neither do they know the uncontaminated mass of the people in the provinces, as they neither know their spirit nor their language nor their sufferings.” [The Truth for All,” La Solidaridad, Volume I, pp. 81-85, May 31, 1889]

Rizal also commented: “However, from all this regrettable incident, it seems it can be inferred, like the mephitic exhalation of a heap of garbage, the desire not to do justice but to kill the criminal; something sanguinary, inhuman, base, something ferocious.” [“Philippines Affairs,” La Solidaridad, Volume II, pp. 93-95, April 30, 1890] Which “regrettable incident” at present applies? The confrontation between the partisans of two candidates in front of that bank in Metro Manila?

Disasters caused by moral hazards! Mitigation. Adaptation. Risk reduction. Perhaps we should draw inspiration from our records of leadership. Like the speech of President Carlos P. Garcia speech on the occasion of the ROTC Field Day, February 20, 1960 (read by Defense Secretary Alejo Santos): “The defense of the fatherland is incumbent upon every citizen. Of our multifarious civic responsibilities the duty to take up arms in defense of our sovereign rights must take precedence...Those of you who have done some readings in the development of constitutional government must know the historical fact that survival of democracy vis-a-vis determined efforts of despots to suppress human freedom and dignity depends mainly on equally determined efforts on the part of lovers of freedom to prepare for self-defense.”

And from Jovito R. Salonga’s “A Journey of Struggle and Hope,” what can we learn about political careers? The future Senate President decided to take up law and enter politics after seeing Speaker Manuel Roxas in action at the Pasig glorietta discussing the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act. But decades later: “After my retirement from partisan politics and government service in 1992, I felt as though I had been liberated.” [Quezon City: U.P. Center for Leadership, Citizenship and Democracy, 2001, pp. xv, 7]

From Renato Constantino’s “The Nationalist Alternative,” we find:

The “three basic goals of nationalism” are: “economic independence, political sovereignty and a democratic society.” (Note to the Second Edition, April 9, 1984, p. v)

Legitimization is a “constant preoccupation of governments.” (p. 5)

“A nationalist administration would mobilize the creative energies of the people to better develop the productive forces of society to serve the needs of the majority.” (p. 7)

The Philippines and 96 other members of the United Nations sponsored in 1974 the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States.

“All Philippine administrations, and also their conventional opposition, have been to a large extent captives of the development concepts laid down by the advanced capitalist countries and their transnational corporations.” (p. 26)

“The fate of Third World countries like the Philippines must be decided by the people, not by the elite.” [Quezon City: Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1984, p. 28] By Burkeian estimates, only five percent of the elites form the ruling class in the Philippines. [Pacifico Agabin, “The Ruling Class and the Political Process,” Annual Lecture on the 57th Anniversary of the Civil Liberties Union, Club Filipino, Pasig, Metro Manila, November 30, 1994]

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